The Franken-Quilt

I’ll tell you a little secret about my quilt that’s going to be in the upcoming Quilt National — I call it a Franken-quilt (as in Frankenstein).

I was trimming it to prepare for the binding (at about four in the morning — a ghastly time to do such a critical task) and I trimmed too much. When I pinned the binding on, I found it would hit the edge of the flower shop at a bad place – yikes!

So I dug the edge out the trash, zig-zagged it back on, and re-trimmed slightly wider. Enough that I could move the binding over a bit and the zig-zagging doesn’t show. So no one knows about the mistake except me, and now you.

Quilt National groups A, B, and C

Dale Anne asked about the coding of the artists listed on the Quilt National 2009 website. The whole show will be on exhibit at the Dairy Barn from May 23 – September 7, 2009. After that, it will travel to The Foundry Art Centre in St. Charles, Missouri — the only other venue that will exhibit the entire show.

After that, the quilts are sorted into three groups called A, B and C.Â This way smaller segments of the show can travel to museums and other venues that can’t accomodate the whole show, which is quite large when taken together.

The entire collection will be on exhibit at The Foundry Art Centre from September 25 – October 29, 2009, and I’ve been asked to do an artist’s luncheon talk and then walk the audience through the exhibition on Thursday, October 8.

So if you can’t make to the Dairy Barn in Ohio, come visit the show at the Foundry in Missouri! After that, I think the schedule for the smaller group exhibits is still being planned.

Don’t you hate doing something like cutting too much off, to yourself? I was packing a quilt, to send off to a show, once and discovered that my dog had chewed a corner off! Fortunately, after much searching through my stash and scraps, I found enough front, back, and binding to repair it. But, so frustrating, working against the clock.

Great save! This is how we make our group art quilts. We trim the blocks, and then zig-zag together and then satin stitch on top. Of course, with a room full of quilters, it is not uncommon to cut a block (or two!) too small by accident, and then it is a rush to put it back together.
Thanks for the info about Quilt National. This will be my first time to go and your info has been quite helpful!

Yesssss, that’s a terrible feeling. But hopefully we can usually figure out some kind of work-around, and a few lucky times, the solution can be better (keep your fingers crossed:) Then we can hopefully stop calling them mistakes and call them inspirations!

I have to admit that when I see you, the professional quilt artist, confess to these things, I feel so much better when I make similar mistakes (or worse) because now I can say “What would Pam do?” Thanks for sharing!

Oh don’t you hate that horrible sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when you realize you’ve just made a wrong cut – and of course there’s no more fabric left……the secrets some projects could tell!

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About

I'm an artist who makes contemporary quilts and drawings. I share a studio in an old peanut butter factory with my husband Russ RuBert who is an artist and sculptor. I'm also co-founder of the ideaXfactory, a contemporary art installation space. You can also see more of my art at PamRuBert.com